Asking because… On one hand I do see smartphones being released left-and-right, and they are rather integral to modern life
On the other hand I’m still chugging alone with my Pixel 6a that I bought 3 years ago with a replaced battery and a somewhat clogged charging port… and all my previous phones I only replaced when they have serious deficits that make them difficult to use
Wondering when you all replace phones. Please definitely mention it too if you ended up repurposing the old phone for something else
ITT: it is confirmed that nearly everyone on Lemmy is die-hard “if it aint broke don’t replace it” about their phone (hell yeah)
It may not be broke, but I sure am.
me too fam
I replace mine before it breaks but then I’ll pass it on. My mom gets my old phones. Seems very happy with the iPhone 13 mini right now, I replaced it with my ex’s 14 pro when she upgraded to a 15 pro, as I was the one who paid for it anyway.
Now I’m considering selling the 14 pro and getting a 16 or 17 pro just so it no longer reminds me of her with the broken rear glass (since she’s the one that did the breaking). An important change in my life is that I can now get a work phone through my own company, saving me 33% in social tax (on top of salary), 22% income tax (from the salary) and 24% VAT in the phone’s price. These don’t add up linearly since the %s are from different amounts, but essentially I’ve calculated that the savings from buying things for the company vs paying myself a larger salary and buying for myself, is nearly 60%. This is not tax evasion either, I’m reachable to my clients via my phone so essentially it’s a legitimate business expense to have a work phone!
re-homing the old device is also a decent ewaste reduction strategy, kudos
hm i probably should have expensed more things when I had a business, especially because paying US taxes is inherently unethical these days 💀
Whenever the old one dies or becomes unusable. A new phone doesn’t really offer much new, so I see no reason to upgrade just for the sake of upgrading
If it aint broke, don’t fix it. That’s my general idea anyway. The other thing to consider is security upgrades (end of life). Then again, this time around I may just install a de-googled OS instead of buying again.
Its been 6-7 years for this one. I replace them when they stop working
That’s the rational answer. Replace a thing when it’s no longer fit for its purpose, typically because it’s broken.
I use my phone until it is completely inoperable so a few years.
I once used a phone where half the screen was broken but the touch sensors still worked and I’d memorized where all the buttons were so I could still receive and send calls and texts.
People that replace electronic devices that still work confuse and annoy me.
Every 3-4 years which is when it starts becoming really slow or something breaks. I still keep and use the old phone though and it usually works, just not enough to daily drive.
I won’t replace it unless it’s needed. And that includes data security reasons. If my phone stops receiving security updates, I buy a new one. Trying to sort out identity theft is not worth being cheap over.
I’ve always thought it’s a little crazy to buy a new phone on a schedule. Like some people do every year or two. That’s expensive and terrible for the environment.
About every 5 years, usually when either the phone breaks, or key software no longer supported.
I had a moment of reflection last year about this. I told a coworker that my phone doesn’t have service in the building and I refuse to get on company Wi-Fi with my personal device.
He explained that when he gets a new phone, he uses his old one as work only.
My brain hovered for a minute in “but the old one is broken do you get it fixed or something?” Before clicking in “oh, he buys a new phone before the old one goes bad”
My brain genuinely struggled with the concept. Maybe if he’d been a rich person it would have connected sooner. I dunno
If you still have that service issue, get an MVNO SIM that runs on a different network.
When I can’t use the old one anymore. Every time so far, that’s been because of a hardware failure.
I’m currently on a Pixel 4A. It’s running Android 16 (LineageOS), and I limit battery charge with AccA so that it doesn’t wear out. It’s currently showing 92% capacity, which seems pretty good for five years. I don’t think I’d actually like a new phone; it would be faster and have a better camera, but my current phone isn’t a bottleneck, and a new phone’s camera will still be worse than my Olympus. It would have 5G, but why should I care? Most new phones are bigger, and as an adult, my hands are not growing.
I love that answers like this are popular here. There was a time when phone tech was improving fast enough that frequent upgrades made a lot of sense, but now is not that time.
I’m still on a 4a too! I’m kind of thinking about upgrading 'cause I run GrapheneOS on it and nowadays whenever I reboot it I get a warning that it’s no longer supported, but also it still works so whatever.
I think maybe if I see a newer Pixel that’s cheap second-hand somewhere I might think about it, that way I can keep using GrapheneOS and not give any money to Google.
4A club member! I love the hell out of this phone but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking for a good upgrade option. I’ve got burned in notification and tray icons and this guy has been in the drink a couple times. The 9A looks okay but I really hate all the AI integration phones have now.
When it no longer holds charge.
This is usually about 5 years. I’d change the battery, but by then the web has slowed down and become inefficient enough to warrant a new phone anyway.
Only when the previous one is completely out of commission. My last phone was a Samsung S20 I got in 2020 and it finally died when it took it’s last fall on to some concrete, and I replaced it a few months ago with an S24
Generally I wait until it dies. My current one is testing my patience at 3 years old while I’ve disliked it since the start, but the cost of a new one is sobering enough to let me suck it up.
My first phone died under a bus after 4 years, my second one stopped getting security updates after 2 or 3 years and was starting to get seriously slow, so that one I sold, my third one took 5 years to die to repeated water exposure… And this is my fifth one.
I have averaged about every 5-6 years
When it is no longer able to do things I actually need it to do, and fixing is difficult/expensive.
So far that’s about 5 years per phone for me.
